Research Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology
Plant Sciences Group
This group forms the core biological membership of the Centre for Plant Sciences
The CPS was founded in 1990 as a cross-faculty, multidisciplinary research unit and became recognised by the BBSRC as one of its top funded departments; rewarded with its own quota of PhD studentships. Current research income of £11M, derives from Research Councils, Charities, EU, and Industry. CPS staff have a strong publication record, publishing in high-impact general and specialist journals. The CPS recently won a national competition to provide the GATSBY Foundation training in Plant Sciences, including running a residential Summer School for 100 top UK science undergraduates.
CPS research is spread across the range of plant sciences, from basic to applied. Outside the “core” CPS staff we have strong formal and informal research links to other researchers within Leeds (G&G, textiles and food science, chemistry, E&E), nationally and internationally . The CPS is an international organisation with PIs postdocs and PhD students from around the world. 30% of our 2005 publications are with overseas collaborators. Our international outlook is also demonstrated by our current and past success in EU funding. The CPS was recently awarded a BBSRC grant for a scoping visit to develop research links in China and is now in the process of establishing a joint laboratory in Plant Sciences together with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
With the benefit of externally awarded investment in our science, infrastructure and facilities we have created a research group with the facilities to work from the basic molecular level through analysis of transgenic plants to field trials and environmental assessment. We have appointed a transgenic facility manager with skills in the transformation of difficult crop species, who is charged with developing commercial opportunities and providing added value to our research. Plant Science has the potential to contribute enormously to our future health and wealth and the CPS aims to contribute to developing this potential. The CPS is committed to the commercialisation of research, which is essential given the potential for plant science to deliver real industries in the future. We have a number of spin-outs arising from research in the CPS and other groups have licensed distinct patented technologies to major biotech companies. An example of our success at doing science that matters is provided by the highlighting of the GM crop nematode resistance technologies in both the GM Science Review Report and the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit Report. This work is also the principal GM-based research of DFID (www.dfid-psp.org), being donated to subsistence farmers worldwide.